Although we are calling this day 3 our travel was over two days given that we flew to Los Angeles on February 7 with a lane night departure from LAX airport to Sydney.  On top of this because we crossed over the International Time-Line  we arrived to Sydney the morning of February 9.  

​The wait was finally over and we boarded our flight to Sydney, Australia.  Keith is the logistics guy for our flights and realized that next time around we will do this differently.  There are other airline options but also we could come to Los Angeles one day early and do something during the day of our evening flight.  

The good news is that the boarding was completed expeditiously and we pulled away from the gate on time.  After sitting in another location for fifteen minutes the pilot gave us the news.  The winds along the runway planned for our takeoff were preventing us from takeoff given the weight of the plane between fuel, passenger count, luggage and the total weight of the plane.  The pilot said there were two options.  First option was that they were working with the folks in Dallas Fort Worth to determine if we could still take off “safely” on that runway as planned by making some adjustments.  The other and preferred option was to use a runway in the opposite direction with the winds behind us.  The only downside was this could delay our departure by an additional hour.  After another thirty minutes the pilot announced that we would use the alternate runway and would take off within ten minutes.  
 
Although we took off late we made up most of the time in the air.  The flight crew including the team in the cockpit and the flight attendants were terrific.  We flew in a Boeing 787 and were fortunate to be in Business Class.  The flight was full between Business, Premium Economy and Economy. Some people were waitlisted for the flight.  This is a popular time of the year for travel to Sydney because of tourism including many cruise ships sailing this area of the world.
 
Total flight time was a little over fifteen hours. 
 
Unlike flights which leave in the afternoon/early evening, dinner was served efficiently with the appetizer, salad and entrée served at once followed by dessert.  Shortly after dinner we both went to sleep. Normally Anne Marie will watch a couple of movies and Keith a portion of one, however, given that we had each been up for a day or more we each passed on the movies.  

Overall the ride was fairly smooth with just a few times where we encountered moderate to somewhat rough turbulence.
 
 

We decided to use a service which provided a meet-and-greet for us as we entered the terminal from the jet-bridge.  This is only the second time that we have done this when traveling for pleasure (from time to time Keith had this on international business trips to save precious time) but knowing that we might be very tired Keith arranged for this service.  This turned out well and the greeter stayed with us as we claimed our luggage, went through customs/immigration and met by the driver provided by the hotel.

We were driven to the Shangri-La Hotel located in downtown Sydney.  Our first stay at this hotel brand was last June in Paris and since we enjoyed it so much we looked at this Hotel along with a few others in this area of downtown.  The hotel is located within ten minutes of the Circular Quay Pier where we have docked on all of our previous Crystal Serenity Cruises.  

Our room was ready upon check in and we've included some photos.  We have a beautiful view of Darling Harbor.

We stopped by the Club Lounge which is absolutely beautiful and provides beautiful views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay.

Our daughter Jennifer met us at the hotel and it was so nice t see her.  It has been almost eight months since we saw her and the rest of the family.  Thankfully we speak, text and email often along with seeing the family using an smart phone app.  After a nice chat we walked from the Hotel to The Rocks over towards Circular Quay, by the Opera House and over to the Botanical Gardens where we sat and enjoyed a picnic lunch that Jennifer prepared for us.

We enjoyed our short stay at the hotel.  We awoke early before taking the hotel shuttle over to the airport which is less then a five minute drive.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to walk to the airport with luggage.  With the windchill it felt as if it was in the 20's.  There was one other person on the shuttle who was here on business and from Cleveland so we were discussing what cold means to us versus to him.  He was not wearing a jacket.  

After check in at the ticket counter we went through TSA quickly since we have Global Entry including TSA Pre Check.  Keith was the lucky one stopped for the random check of his hands.  Anne Marie was lucky the past two times.  We are glad they do this as in the end safety is and should be the number one priority of air travel.

We relaxed at the airline lounge before it was time to walk to our gate.

The good news is that we took off ahead of schedule, even though we had a full flight.  We passed the time by reading and talking and enjoyed a simple breakfast of oatmeal and fruit.  

We benefited from strong tail winds which did push us around for the first thirty minutes of the flight but allowed us to arrive to LAX close to forty five minutes ahead of schedule.  We had to wait fifteen minutes before the gate was open but all in all a nice flight.  

Our flight arrived to the LAX international terminal so we didn't have to get from one terminal to another one.  We were last here in May when the airline lounge was closed for renovations. The renovated lounge is a big improvement.  

We had lunch at the lounge which is vastly nicer then the typical USA lounge.  In fact, when we arrived they were just finishing breakfast with a large buffet of hot and cold foods and someone making omelets.  There was even sushi.    We waited about forty five minutes for the start of lunch.

We spoke with our daughter.  It is her birthday today.  Well actually it is tomorrow in Australia already and that his her actual birthday.  Ironically we will miss that day as we cross the International Dateline.  This happened to us several years ago on a Crystal World Cruise as we skipped that date.  We remember that as someone we know who's the same birthdate was on that sailing and we skipped over the actual date.

The good news is we are here and that is what counts.  We had a choice of three flights; one at the crack of dawn, one early morning and one early evening.  The last flight would have allowed only a couple of connection time and we did't want to have such a tight connection given all the factors that can contribute to a late departure.  With that said we arrived to LAX about eleven hours before our evening flight to Sydney.  

We did recognize one passenger in the lounge; a former member of The Supremes; Diana Ross.  

She looked terrific. Keith had seen her perform in Las Vegas in the early 1990's at a very small venue.  

We are posting early today and will post again from Sydney.  

Please remember that we will be sixteen hours ahead of those of you on the East Coast. 

Keith & Anne Marie

We wanted to begin by thanking those of you who provided comments on the Blog and in e-mails to us.  

Although today is Day 1 of the adventure we didn't do much in the way of traveling.  We are saving that for tomorrow.  The morning was busy.  Anne Marie got the house ready for our departure.  In addition to Keith  teaching his regular indoor cycling class at 9:15 AM at our Fitness Center where he has been a Fitness Instructor since mid-2016, he was a last minute sub for the 7:00 AM class due to a fellow instructor coming down with what appears to be the flu. A couple of hours after he returned home it was time for the start of our adventure.

Our pickup arrived early afternoon for a one-hour drive to a hotel on the property of our local airport.  Often we stay at this hotel to avoid a very early drive to the airport.  Anne Marie often worries at such an early hour that the driver might fall asleep and our community is hope to thousands of deer so there is also the concern of running into one of them.

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Tomorrow we will fly and it will be long day.  Actually two days of flying with a long layover between the two flights. We will post tomorrow before we get on the long-haul flight to Sydney.  

We look forward to leaving winter weather at home for the summer of Australia and most importantly we look forward to seeing our family whom we love so much.

More tomorrow.

Anne Marie and Keith